”The heart of another is a dark forest,” writes Ivan Turgenev in A Month in the Country. This is true, indeed, not only of the heart of another, but equally of my own heart: that too is “a dark forest.” In the words of the Psalmist, “The heart is deep” (Ps. 64:6). There are profundities within each one of us which we have yet to plumb. Personhood cannot be exactly defined; we can provide an ostensive definition, pointing to what is meant and indicated by “being a person,” but we cannot offer a systematic and exhaustive description.
